This invention relates to troposcatter communications systems and in particular to a precision antenna alignment procedure for such systems.
Up to the present time troposcatter antennas have been aligned by attempting to maximize the received signal power. Because of deep, persistent fading on scatter channels the proper pointing angle alignment for each antenna is difficult to determine by this method and both antennas are often fixed in less than the optimum pointing position. Accordingly, there currently exists the need for troposcatter antenna alignment techniques that do not depend on received signal power. It is also desirable that such techniques be practiced without the use of complex computer programs or expensive special purpose computers. The present invention is directed toward satisfying the need for improved troposcatter alignment techniques by alignment methods utilizing Doppler shift characteristics instead of signal power maximization and cross correlation techniques and data processing procedures instead of computer processing.